I took the train from Hong Kong to Shenzhen and since my china visa expired in March, I had to rely on a special Shenzhen area visa that would allow me to stay in the Shenzhen area for up to 5 days.  I had planned to stay in Hong Kong for a little bit longer but it turns out that accommodations go from $10-$15 per dorm bed to nearly $50 on the weekends.  I felt that this was absurd and so I headed to Shenzhen back to the $10-$15 hostel prices.  Upon arriving at the train station, I was basically out of Money and was worried I would not be able to pay for the visa since I had no HK money to exchange and no Chinese RMB because none of the ATMs in Hong Kong offered RMB despite advertising they did.  I looked for an ATM in the train station but had no luck.  I headed to the visa on arrival area and was headed upstairs.

 You take a ticket with a number on it, take a photo in their automated photo booth then wait for your number to be called.  Most of the reviews I has read said that this should not be any more than a 30 minute process, but it seemed like there were lot’s of people that day and so, I ended up waiting more than an hour.  During that time we met a couple that was also getting their Visa’s and we got to talking.  They were studying in Spain and were in Hong Kong on exchange, so they decided to check out Shenzhen.  We decided that we were going to meet up later once we figured out our separate hostel/hotel situations.  I had chosen a hostel halfway in between the two areas that looked like had “stuff” which was about an hour from the border we crossed at.  Thankfully it was the same subway line, so I just jumped on the subway and headed for my hostel.

That’s when things started to get a bit annoying.  As you know Google is banned in China, so where Google maps works, it might not be that accurate.  I have grown to rely heavily on google maps on my travels and when I searched for the hostel it came up in an apartment building within a complex that was locked with a gate.  I went into the building and climbed the stairs and then figured out that the unit numbers weren’t matching up so I figure di was in the wrong place.  I then went to the booking.com app and used Apple maps to see where the the place was.  This gave me a nearby but completely different location.  I made my way over there and again it was within a controlled entry compound.  I eventually found someone to let me in and when I got to the building it looked more promising, however there was another controlled entry apartment inside and I got lucky that someone came out when I was there or I don’t know what I would have done, because I didn’t know how to read the buzzer system.  I made my way to the address and despite being advertised as a Hostel the place had no markings.  I’ve been to a lot of sketchy hostels and hostel locations, but this was a first for me.  I had to call the guy which cost me some money and eventually he came out and let me in. I am telling this story because it was honestly the hardest hostel to find in all of my travels and I have gotten used to knowing where to look.  I would have thought the manager would have given me instructions on how to find the place if it was that difficult bu I guess not.  This was also probably one of the most bizarre hostels I have stayed at since it was less of a hostel and more of a cheap place for locals to stay long term.  I was for sure the only person that was not staying there for the long term and everything just felt odd.  I guess I would leave China to give me the worst/weirdest hostel experience but in the end it was a place to sleep.  There was basically no padding however and the mattress was similar to sleeping on a yoga mat which is terrible when you are a side sleeper.  I didn’t take any photos so this was a wall of text and I apologize for that.

Enough about the hostel, let’s get into Shenzhen (the most exciting place on earth…. have you gotten the impression that I did not enjoy my time here yet?)  By the time I found the hostel and got settled it was pretty late, but I had planned to meet up with Andrei and the people we had met at the visa place so had to jump back on the subway towards a night life area that was apparently good.  The crew eventually met up and we walked around finding a decently cool nightlife spot, there were lots of options but we needed food.  So we stopped at a BBQ joint, ate some food and then wandered a but more to find a bar that might be cool.  We walked around and eventually found a place that seemed cool.  

We were for sure the only foreigners in the entire place which was kind of cool.  There was a lounge area in one spot and  club area in the middle.  The bar was pretty cool and then we headed into the club area for a bit.

We then tried to see if we could get up to the top of the tall building next to the bar street by sweet talking the security personnel.  They weren’t having it and told us to come back tomorrow, but were pretty cool young guys that did have fun with us .

 The night was actually pretty fun until I got back to the hostel and could not get in.  Having to call the guy again to let me in was annoying because it cost me money and I knew there was a number pad with a code that he could give me, but I had to just ring the bell every time and someone would need to let me in instead.  The next day I decided to head to the famous Shenzhen electronics market which is the topic of many youtube videos and news stories.  It is an area of Shenzhen where you can literally get anything you want.  

From passive components like transistors, LEDs and resistors to full fledged products like cases and computer components.  They are really tailored for selling wholesale, but will sell you a single item if you want.  I wandered around for several hours, enjoying the variety of items available.  I wasn’t really in the market for anything so didn’t buy anything, but it made me feel similar to how I feel at CES, so many of our natural resources are put into producing crap.  It also seems like there were sooooo many products and the speed in which electronics go out of date, there is no way they could sell everything before it goes out of date.  I really enjoyed walking around, although I was keeping my eye out for camera modules or any imagers and I didn’t see any.  I was a bit surprised to be honest to not see a single camera module.  I am mot sure why this is the case, but it surprised me.

After wandering for a while I jumped on a bike share bike and headed to Glasshammer brewing which was decently close.

 I then went on an adventure to try and find the Xiaomi flagship store because there was a razor they sell which was really cool and I also heard the store was cool.  My first mistake was relying on google maps in China and my second mistake was not researching the location of the store ahead of time when I had wifi.  I headed off on a subway followed by a public bike and quickly realized that I was in the wrong part of town.  It was pretty far away from everything and there was for sure no store there.  It was a very local part of town and I was given a lot of stares for being there.  I realized my mistake and eventually jumped on a bike to head back to the Hostel area as there was a brewery down the street I wanted to check out.  Turns out there were actually two breweries side by side which meant I knew what I was doing for the rest of the night.

I started at Bionic Brewing which had a cool western bartender that spoke English, so I hung out with him and had some of their beers.  

It was pretty decent and I had a great time, then I headed next door and had some beers from Peko brewing which was started by an American guy who came to China in 1992.  

He was an interesting character and had just come back from a Hash House Harrier run and we had plenty of cool things to chat about.  

He shared some of his food with me and his wife and son was running around which was fun.  I very much enjoyed those two breweries and the beer was quite good for china.  

After not having eaten much for dinner and spending a little bit more time than expected a the breweries, I was feeling pretty happy and so I set off in search of food.  As I have explained in the past, my general strategy when looking for food is to check out what the locals are eating and then sit down and point at a dish that someone else is eating. I started cruising the nearby restaurants and in doing so one couple noticed I was eyeing their food and offered for me to sit down with them.  They were eating crawfish and were really excited to share and show me how to eat them.  We ended up ordering drinks and hanging out for the remainder of the evening.  It was super fun!

The next day, I ended up just kind of walking around.  I checked out the wonders of the war amusement park where they basically have miniature versions of a significant number of worldwide attractions, like the Eiffel tower and Niagara Falls etc.  I also checked out the similar park which has miniature versions of Chinese attractions.  I didn’t go inside as the tickets were a bit pricey but I saw what I could from the entrance.  

I needed a reset day, so ended up going back to the hostel and just watching a movie.  The next day was a similar feeling lazy day.  I since it was still the weekend, Hong Kong was still expensive and Macau was even more so, so I felt like I was kind of stuck in Shenzhen.  

I wasn’t sure exactly what I was going to do, but ended up just walking around, taking the mobike public bikes around and eventually ended up at E.T. Brewing, which is one of the first breweries in Shenzhen opened by a Chinese brew master.  The majority of craft breweries in China are opened by foreigners who come to China for one way or another.  The beer was ok but not great but they had a nice set up and I enjoyed my flight there.  After E.T. I made my way back to the Hostel and just had a quiet night.

The next morning I got up early and headed to the Ferry which would take me to Macau where I planned to wander the streets for 12ish hours then grab my flight at 12:30am that evening to Seoul Korea.  I should have bought my ferry ticket ahead of time because I arrived in time for the 9am ferry but it was sold out, so I had to wait and take the 11M boat, which brought me into Macau a bit later than I wanted but I guess when you don’t plan ahead like me, you run into issues like this sometimes.  I had heard that Macau was not that big and you could really get it fully explored in a day, so I wasn’t too worried.  I hunkered down at a table in the ferry terminal, had some breakfast and opened up my laptop to do some blogging.  Then I boarded the ferry and was off to Macau.

I was not a huge fan of Shenzhen and I am glad I went to explore it, but could have spent a lot less time there and spent more time in Korea although a friend was meeting me in Seoul and I didn’t want to end up staying there for too long either.